The Shutdown Corner Interview: Eric Berry (Part 2)

You hear about players being "born" to play their sports, but current Kansas City Chiefs and former Tennessee Volunteers safety Eric Berry(notes) fits the profile better than most. His father James was a three-year starter for the Vols, and the team's 1981 defensive captain. From an early age, Berry took his dad's lessons to heart. At Creekside High in Fairburn, Georgia, he led his team to a 37-5 record as a quarterback and safety, and that was just a warm-up for what he'd do at his father's alma mater.

Berry tore up the NCAA, winning the 2009 Thorpe Award and becoming the best safety in the collegiate ranks. Berry was drawing comparisons to Brian Dawkins(notes) and Ed Reed(notes) even before former NFL defensive genius Monte Kiffin became his defensive coordinator in time for the 2009 season. Off the field, Berry is just as driven — he was a member of the National Honor Society in high school, and interned with a local dentist last year to further his education. I got a chance to catch up with Berry after a recent adidas photo shoot, and here's Part 2 of the interview.

Shutdown Corner: You're so tight when it comes to reading offenses and so disciplined when going downhill fast to make tackles — I know you just work on technique all the time, but at what point do things move so fast in the game, that you have to let your instincts take over?

Eric Berry: I don't think

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The Shutdown Corner Interview: Eric Winston (Part 1)

Welcome to the first in a series of NFL player interviews, in which we'll cover issues on and off the field. Subject No. 1 is Houston Texans right tackle Eric Winston(notes). The Miami grad, taken as part of a 2006 Texans draft that also produced Mario Williams(notes), DeMeco Ryans(notes) and Owen Daniels(notes), has developed into one of the more underrated linemen in the NFL today. He's started 55 straight games for the team and didn't incur a single penalty in 2009. In Part 1 of my interview with Eric, we talk about media futures, former Texans line coach Alex Gibbs (who's now in Seattle), zone blocking, and the team's recent red zone woes. Stay tuned for the interview's conclusion later Thursday.

Shutdown Corner: You have a great website, you do radio ... basically you're pretty active in traditional and social media. Plus, you're filling in for Peter King with an MMQB column while he's in South Africa. Do you have specific media/broadcasting goals after football?

Eric Winston: You know, I honestly have no idea — right now, I want to push it as far as I can. I really do. The radio show is a pretty big hit; I've gotten a ton of positive feedback from it. It's really kind of stunning because when I first started doing it, I didn't know how the fans would react to me. Sometimes you like a guy and sometimes you don't, and I guess the people who don't like me just haven't said much

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The Shutdown Corner Interview: Eric Winston (Part 2)

Note: You can find part 1 of my interview with Houston Texans right tackle Eric Winston(notes) here. In the conclusion, Eric talks about myths and misconceptions, the toughest players he faces, what Brian Cushing(notes) has been up to, and what the Texans need to do to hit the next level.

Shutdown Corner: Do you think zone blocking teams get a bad rap when it comes to overall power?

Eric Winston: It's such a fine line - it really is. When you have teams that do some different things ... the thing we've seen, especially from 2008 to 2009, is some very different ways to attack zone blocking schemes. Whether it's pinching ends (inside), or running linebackers over the top, putting guys in different gaps or just taking guys out of the play and just shooting them upfield as hard as they can to set some sort of edge, we've seen some different ways to combat what we're doing. And now, it's our turn to come back and one-up them.

I've seen guys ... if you don't teach the mentality as well as the zone scheme, you do get a little bit soft. Just because you're not always firing right off the ball. You have to be an athlete - you have to go sideways and get those hips squared. You have to know when it's okay to get parallel with the line of scrimmage and get width on a guy. And at what point do you need to push guys forward? When you juggle players in as we did last year - the zone scheme, more than anything else,  is all about playing together and being a part of it. That's something I have learned in the last couple of years; even though it's a great system, I have to understand not just who I have and what combination I have, but what are we really trying to do here? Toward the end of the year, the new guys started to understand that even if the ball was going the other way, they were really still the point of attack and they had to start getting some push. As a result, I think you saw our run stats go up toward the end of the year, more where we like it.

SC: You face the Colts twice a season and you're going up against their speed rushers - is Robert Mathis(notes) your biggest challenge, and who are a few more of the better pass-rushers you've faced?

EW: He's a guy I'm definitely not excited about playing, let's put it that way. I will say that I think I have played him well, and better than most of the right tackles I see playing him on film, but he's a tough guy to play. And the Colts, overall, are a tough team to play. They're like that pitcher you never really see ... they're like Jamie Moyer (laughs). Nobody else in Major League baseball throws 78 miles an hour - and I'm not saying the Colts are soft or anything - but that's how they are. It's so hard to get ready for them, because nobody else does what they do. Nobody else runs his offense like Peyton Manning(notes). Nobody else plays defense like they do, with all those undersized guys just going really fast. That's why I think that us, Jacksonville, and Tennessee - we play them the best. We haven't had a ton of success against them, and nobody else in our division has, but if you look at their toughest games over the last few years, we've given them everything (we could). Knowing them helps, as opposed to, "Holy crap, this defensive tackle is really running - I'd better go wider here!"

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